The abuse or misuse of medications represents an ongoing challenge for public health authorities. Whether intentional or accidental, the improper use of prescription medicaments has the potential to cause serious harm, ranging from reduced efficacy of the drug, to an increased expression of side effects and addictions.
Drug abusers have devised a variety of ways for achieving the “high” associated with improper substance use. A primitive, yet effective, technique sees a user crush or pulverize one or more oral dosages for subsequent administration via other routes, such as snorting, smoking or injecting. More elaborate methods involve extracting active ingredients from pharmaceuticals with the aid of household solvents or spirits like vodka, and even kitchen appliances, such as microwaves.
The threat to public health posed by improper drug use has prompted numerous public health authorities to task drug manufacturers with developing improved tamper-proof technologies. One approach has been to provide analgesic compositions comprising both agonistic and antagonistic ingredients, with the antagonistic effect designed to dominate when the composition is administered by an abusive route, such as by injection.
Other tamper-proof techniques have focused around so-called aversion technologies, which aim to discourage the would-be abuser by making the process more difficult and less pleasurable. Such approaches have involved using gelling agents to prevent a user from drawing the substance into a syringe, or including additives to cause increased burning and irritation in the nasal passages when snorted.
However, with abuse rates having quadrupled in the decade from 1990 to 20001,2, there remains a constant need for improved tamper-resistant technologies.
The present invention was devised with the foregoing in mind.